


Soft

by Hey_There_Cowboy



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Inspired by Poetry, John Keats is my man i love him, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Post Pacifist Route, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Simon is a smol bean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 20:17:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15692640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hey_There_Cowboy/pseuds/Hey_There_Cowboy
Summary: If you ask around New Jericho, you’ll learn that people found Markus to be the image of strength and will. If you dug a little more, they’d also say he was surprisingly gentle. His words never cut or pushed them around, they were guiding nudges towards the right direction that inspired people to do the best they could and become the best version of themselves.It wasn’t surprising that Simon tended to gravitate to the android leader.Russian Translation





	Soft

If you ask around New Jericho, you’ll learn that people found Markus to be the image of strength and will. If you dug a little more, they’d also say he was surprisingly gentle. His words never cut or pushed them around, they were guiding nudges towards the right direction that inspired people to do the best they could and become the best version of themselves. 

It wasn’t surprising that Simon tended to gravitate to the android leader. The caretaker android was gentle in words and actions, but his self-doubt clouded any intention of making a better, safer life for the androids that came to Jericho when it was young. He hated himself for it, but the risk of setting up his people up to fail was too much. When Markus arrived, everything changed. He gave off this bright aura that made Simon brave. He wanted to take action with the android, help him in his journey to free their people. The old leader dared to say that he had hope for the future of his people, despite the cold and cruel world deviants were born into. 

That was months ago and Simon looked on a new world for androids and humans with a warm heart. He had helped Markus achieve what he one time called impossible and went through hell for it. If you ask him, he’d do it again in a heartbeat for his leader. 

That determination and undying loyalty arose one day when Markus called him, asking for his company. These meetings weren’t strange for the two androids; in fact, Simon always looked forward to them. Markus always had something to do with human officials and politics, effectively taking him away from the little group they’d formed at Jericho. 

It was fall again as Simon walked through the downtown streets of Detroit, the city quiet and still. Some humans had come back to stay in the city, but it was no longer the bustling and chaotic metropolis that it once was. Simon found he liked it this way better, the peace and calm. 

As he approached his destination, he could see Markus’s figure standing tall in the plaza. Simon was overtaken for just a moment by his thirium pump regulator as it started to work faster, stopping just a few yards away. This wasn’t strange, either, for the android when he was with the leader; before he called the causes _> \--/admiration/--<_ and underlying _> \--/fear/--<_ when the Revolution was happening. Now, _> \--/nervousness/--<_ and something much warmer caused Simon’s regulator to speed up and make his systems whirl and fidget while he was around Markus. 

Once the warning in his system passed, Simon continued on his way towards his friend—

_> \--/error/--/...searching.../--/companion/--<_

Markus probably sensed someone approaching him as he turned around to face him with a smile broad as the sky. Every single time the two androids saw each other, they hugged, and Simon lived for these moments.

_> \--/Security/--/Relief/--/Joy/--/Lo/--/error/--<_

Markus’s hug might have been brief but it lingered on Simon’s skin, ghosting his shoulders with static electricity, as they started to walk side by side. The leader might have been a man of few words to some, always contemplating what he said next, but with the caretaker android, he could literally not shut up. 

He talked about anything and everything with Simon, new laws that were in pending for android rights, the turbulent effects of the environment, paintings and sculptures he was planning, even the various animals and pets he had the pleasure of meeting. His words were colorful and excited, the mismatched eyes bright in the rising sunlight. To Simon, he was the most… _> \--/...searching.../--/exquisite/--<_ person he had ever met. 

“How have you been, Simon? I feel like I haven’t talked to you in ages,” Markus was beaming at the android and Simon’s hands twitched at how he said his name with such fondness. 

_> \--/error/--/ve/--<_

They sat on a park bench, Simon, with his hands in his lap, and hyper-aware of the right hand that rested across the back of the seat from Markus and near the middle of his shoulder blades with his left foot propped up on his knee. The android rarely sat so casually; his reputation and image meant a great deal to him if he was to be the leader of all androids. A part of Simon burned with satisfaction that Markus was comfortable enough to relax in his presence. But in this close proximity, his pump regulator picked back up again and caused the poor android to wring his hands and pick at the cuff of his jacket sleeve. 

“Good, good,” he managed to say, thirium moving fast and hot in his veins, “I’ve been, um, reading… books.” 

Markus gave him a look and replied with a teasing voice, “Books, you say? They must be very interesting, Simon.”

The android let out a shaky breath and forced out a cough to cover it up, flicking his eyes away from his companion’s smiling face. It was like he was intentionally trying to make Simon overheat with how he said his name like he was the only one in the world that actually mattered. 

“Yes! Uh, I mean yes, ” Simon coughed again and looked to the trees above him and hoped their ways of rooting into the earth would help him stay grounded, “Josh recommended some poetry books to me and I find the Romantics to be the most interesting so far.”

Markus hummed in approval and something swelled within Simon, _> \--/L--/error/--ve/--<_. “I used to read a selection of them to Carl when he was painting in his workshop, especially when he was doing nature scenes. Please, tell me, who’s your favorite so far?”

The question made him retreat into his mind and search the files of poetry that he kept saved, trying to find the right one. In reality, Simon had spent hours upon hours just reading in the library because the humans were right, there was nothing like holding a real book in your hands. He would start in the morning and by night, he’d be surrounded by a fortress of stacked books of various lengths and genre. When Josh did recommend the selected poems of Romantics that he once taught in his classroom, Simon could not stop going through the volumes he could find and resources online. He was nose deep in a massive collection of William Blake in lieu of his daily cleaning ritual.

_> \--/...searching.../--/file located/--<_

Before saying anything, Simon took his counterpart in little by little. Markus was tilted towards Simon now, his knee coming up on the bench and just barely touching the side of his thigh with the leg stretched out. Hip to shoulder, neck to chin, lips to nose, Simon slid his eyes along the android until he reached his eyes, daring to look his green one.

_> \--/beautiful/--/lovely/--/always/--/always him/--<_

He fidgeted, a lump catching in his throat. Simon had waited too long for this moment, self-doubt had sown the idea that his bond with Markus was only that of comradery in a time of panic. That Markus couldn’t look at him without remembering all those deviants that died for the cause and was left with a weak android he had to visit from time to time out of guilt. These thoughts had played with Simon’s head for months and he couldn’t take it anymore, couldn’t believe them with Markus looking at him with undivided attention. 

_> \--/love/----/i love i love i love/--/him/--/i love him/--/i love him/--/i love him/--<_

Holding out a hand, Simon felt the familiar burn of bravery pushed his words forth, “I’d rather show you, if that’s alright?” 

Something flashed across the android’s face, too fast for Simon to really understand it. The hand that rested behind him rose, brushing ever so slightly against the back of his neck, before coming in front of the two men. As their hands approached, the synthetic skin retreated and started to glow a faint blue, getting brighter and brighter as they closed the distance- 

_< <\--/Markus/--/surprise/--/amusement/--/fondness/-->>_

Simon couldn’t breath; he was drowning in him, falling deeper into that beautiful mind. Markus changed his grip on his companion’s hand, tucking Simon’s hand into his own and ran soothing circles over the knuckles. _< <\--/Encouragement/-->>_ passed from Markus and all Simon could do was focus on their conjoined hands as he accessed the file. 

_> >\--/Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—_  
_Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night/-- <<_  
_> >\--/And watching, with eternal lids apart,_  
_Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,/-- <<_

The android leader’s eyes opened wide, _< <\--/disbelief/-->>_, and Simon dared not to look at him as his feelings were finally laid bare, _> >\--/longing/--/anxiety/--/fear/--<<_

_> >\--/The moving waters at their priestlike task _  
_Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,/-- <<_  
_> >\--/Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask_  
_Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—/-- <<_

He felt Markus’s hand shift again, now intertwining their fingers as he brought them to his lips in a gentle press, earning a low groan from Simon as his other hand gripped onto the bench seat like his life depended on it. 

_> >\--/No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, _  
_Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,/-- <<_  
_> >\--/To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,_  
_Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,/-- <<_

Emotions were passed rapidly between them like lovers sending letters; _> <\--/heat/--/devotion/--/hunger/--/rapture/--/desire/--/love/--/love/--/LOVE/--><_

_> >\--/Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,/--<<  
>>\--/And so live ever—or else swoon to death./--<<_

The file was swept away as the two androids collided, kissing frantically with a hand that wound through blonde hair to keep him in place and another grasping wildly at the leader’s shoulders to get closer. It was dizzying as Markus continued to kiss him with a crushing force and holding him so tightly that Simon felt like he was going to burst. _> <\--/Love/--><_ kept bouncing back a forth and he could’ve died happy right then in his companion’s arms.

Markus thought different once warnings of overheating and stress overload were imminent passed between them. His partner was too disoriented to do anything about it, the fact that Markus was still in his head, still _wanting_ him, clouded any rational thought or action. Just as fast as it started, Markus pulled away and disconnected, leaving Simon panting and gripping tightly on his shoulder. It took a minute for Simon’s processors to cool down and his pump regulator to take a step down as Markus rubbed soothing circles into his hand and forearm.

Markus’s eyes were half-lidded and burning into Simon’s as he held the android’s face, making the android’s pump regulator jump at the sight, “How long?”

“Since the beginning.”

And damned were the consequences as Markus reached in again and caught Simon’s lips with his own. These kisses were slow, coaxing Simon to relax his grip until he practically lounged in his companion’s arms. 

Yes, the leader of New Jericho was very a gentle man, but everyone knew he was especially so with the very soft and quiet Simon.

**Author's Note:**

> [Bright Star](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44468/bright-star-would-i-were-stedfast-as-thou-art) by [John Keats](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-keats)


End file.
